Association between health literacy with health seeking behavior in undergraduate students in Shandong / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand relationship between health literacy and health seeking behavior of undergraduate students in Shandong Province.@*Methods@#A total of 1 460 undergraduate students from three universities in Shandong Province were selected through stratified random sampling method and received a questionnaire survey. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, Chi-square test and regression analysis.@*Results@#The proportion of students with basic health literacy was 64.4% (41.37±10.34). The proportion of students with basic knowledge and concept, healthy lifestyle and behavior, and basic skills was 49.6% (16.28±4.58), 70.3% (17.24±4.99) and 83.7% (7.85±1.58), respectively. About 28.1% of undergraduate students reported delay in seeking medical treatment, 71.9% reported prompt in seeking medical treatment, and 24.2% preferred to seek medical treatment in primary medical institutions, 45.5% secondary hospital and 30.3% tertiary hospital. Grade, major, the ability to gather and understand health information was the main factors affecting health literacy. Major and health information screening ability was the main factors affecting health seeking behavior. Grade, major, origin, the awareness and gathering of health information was the main factors affecting the choose of medical institutions(P<0.05). Basic knowledge and concept, basic skills and health literacy was positively correlated with the timing of health seeking behavior, while basic knowledge and concept, healthy lifestyle and behavior, and basic skills might give information on students’ preference on selecting a medical institution.@*Conclusion@#Attention should be paid to the cultivation of health information literacy. An integrated health education and health promotion model of "family-community-hospital-university" should be established.